Timothy Boyle

Boyle was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.[3] He is one of three children of Joseph Cornelius "Neal" Boyle, an Irish Catholic, and Gertrude Lammfromm.[4] His mother was Jewish and fled as a teenager from Nazi Germany. She immigrated to Portland, Oregon,[5] and converted to Catholicism after marrying her husband.[5] He has two sisters: Kathy Boyle (born 1952) and Sally Boyle (born 1958).[4]

His grandfather purchased the Rosenfeld Hat Company[4] and changed its name to the Columbia Hat Company[6] (after the river).[4] His father became president of Columbia Hat after his grandfather died and then diversified the hat business into outerwear[4] for hunters, fishermen, and skiers.[5] In 1960, his mother designed the first fishing vest (his father was an avid fisherman) and the name of the company was changed to Columbia Sportswear.[6]

Boyle was educated at Jesuit High School, in Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland, followed by the University of Oregon, where he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1971.[7]

Boyle was still at university when his father died in 1970[8] at the age of 47. He left to join his mother, who had become president of Columbia Hat, which was then earning $800,000 in annual sales and had 40 employees.[4] The company struggled and teetered on bankruptcy[9] until in the 1970s when Boyle and his mother refocused the business on outdoor clothing and casual wear which paralleled a general trend away from formal work attire.[10] In 1975, they were the first company to introduce Gore-Tex parkas.[6]

In 1986, Columbia released the Bugaboo, a jacket with a zip out lining which became quite trendy and further propelled the company's growth.[4] Columbia was unique among specialty clothing manufacturers in that it would sell its products to any retail shop or chain.[5] In 1987, Columbia had $18.8 million in sales and by 1997 it had grown to $353.5 million.[5] Boyle took over from his mother, Gert, as company president in 1988.[11][12]

The company went public in 1998.[10] In the early 2010s, Boyle refocused Columbia away from top line products and more towards the mid-range, moderately priced products; he also continued to align sales with changes happening in the retail industry, shifting the company more toward internet sales.[2]

Columbia grew into a $6.5bn public company,[13] and Boyle's 41% ownership interest in Columbia Sportswear was worth over $1.0 billion in 2013.[2]

In 2020, Forbes ranked Boyle No. 378 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America.[14]

Boyle and his wife Mary have a son, educated at Drake University in Des Moines, and a daughter, educated at the University of Washington.[15] They live in Portland, Oregon.[1]

In 2007, he and his wife Mary donated $5 million to the University of Oregon.[16] In 2016, he donated $10 million to the University's aquatic animal care facility.[17] More recently the couple donated $10 million towards a biomedical data science initiative.[18] In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boyle reduced his own salary to $10,000 while maintaining the full salary and benefits of all his company's retail employees.[19]